MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 04:30 UTC
De la Espriella addressed Colombians with a “message of unity” and promised “absolute respect” for the vote
Right-wing criminal lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidency, according to the preliminary count by the Registraduría, defeating left-wing senator Iván Cepeda by less than a point in the closest runoff in the country's history. With about 99.9% of the tables processed, De la Espriella took 49.66% of the vote against Cepeda's 48.70%, a difference of some 250,000 ballots. The governing-coalition candidate acknowledged the preliminary count but warned that he would not accept the result until the definitive tally, and challenged 33,000 of the 120,000 polling tables; President Gustavo Petro said that “neither can proclaim himself president.”
The preliminary count is not binding: the official result will come from the tally conducted by the electoral commissions in the coming days. Historically, however, the variation between the two has been minimal —0.06% in the first round and 0.11% in the 2022 runoff— so reversing the trend would require a change on the order of 0.9%, according to the electoral authority's own data. Turnout was a record, close to 63%, the highest in Colombian history. Null and blank votes, some 676,000, more than doubled the difference between the two candidates, reflecting a country split almost in half.
